Aurora Theater Shooter Gives Plea Decision Today [UPDATE]

Ever since the July shooting at an Aurora theater all eyes have been on the case of James Holmes. It has been months since we have seen him or heard anything about the case. Today James Holmes enters his plea on the allegations that he murdered 12 people and tried to kill 70 others.

Holmes has three choices when it comes to his plea. He could plea not guilty and take the case to trial. He could plea guilty to the murders and skip the trial and move straight to sentencing. What Holmes will most likely do is enter the third plea, a plea of guilty by insanity. We have talked about this on air and for the most part we all think that this plea is a cop out.

His attorneys are most likely going to choose the plea of guilty by insanity and move forward with the trial. If this happens today then the judge will order an independent psychiatric evaluation to see if he really is insane. He could be drugged during the evaluation and other information he gave to his psychiatrist, the notebook he sent to his psychiatrist before the attack, can be used as evidence and guidance in his evaluation.

After the plea, if in fact he does plea not guilty by way of insanity, the prosecutors have a very important decision to make. They will have 9 weeks in order to tell the judge if they will seek the death penalty or not. In a death-penalty case, defendants who are found guilty will have to face a second trial before the same jury to decide whether they will be sentenced to die. At this time defendants can also raise mental-health issues in order to persuade the jury.

Update

The judge has entered James Holmes plea of Not Guilty. Judge William Sylvester entered a plea for Jame Holmes after his attorneys said that they weren't ready to enter a plea. The move leaves the door open for Holmes to change his plea later to not guilty by reason of insanity.